For my Graphics Project, I chose to create my image using Pixlr (http://pixlr.com/editor/) . I found this site during gp3, and fell in the love with its easy navigation and clear, clean layout.
It actually took me a lot of time to decide on my topic. I knew I wanted to choose the second option of creating a collage of some kind with a quote, but I couldn't decide how to interpret a quote with only pictures. I had narrowed my ideas down to 3 options: teaching (due to my profession), puppies (because I have a ton of pictures of my own), and sunsets (because I have quite a habit which has resulted in hundreds of pictures). I started off with my teaching idea, and found 2 great quotes. One, by Dan Rather, mentions that a teacher believes in you and pushes you to the next plateau. I had this great idea in my head that involved someone looking over the edge of a cliff and somehow showing that they weren't afraid of the plunge. However, I couldn't find any copyright-free pictures that could convey this. Another teaching quote I found was "a teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." Again I had this great idea in my head, with a background of some celestial atmosphere, and dominoes tumbling through the middle of the picture. However, again I couldn't find any pictures that would show this exactly how I was imagining. I then quickly went through the puppy phase - even though I have my own great pictures, I couldn't think of any awesome quotes that explained my feelings. I finally began looking through my sunset pictures and decided it was about time I did something with all of them, other than take up space on my hard drive.
Since I had the pictures already, I began researching quotes. I found a lot that I felt could work, but immediately fell for this quote by John Ruskiin: "At sunset, nature is painting for us... day after day... pictures of infinite beauty." This quote matched my feelings exactly, and I loved the metaphor created with the word "painting." I immediately went to work searching for royalty-free pictures of paint brushes. I was about to give up, when I decided to use my last resort and look at Microsoft's clipart gallery.
Screen shot 2012-09-20 at 9.04.57 PM.png
I searched "paint," and at first was disappointed to find such a limited response. However, upon inspection, I inserted the first picture. After pasting it into my document, I noticed it was actually a photograph, and was of decent quality. I researched Microsoft End-User terms before using, and confirmed that I was allowed to use this photo as it is for a non-profit project:
d.Media Elements and Templates. You may have access to media images, clip art, animations, sounds, music, video clips, templates and other forms of content (“media elements”) provided with the software or as part of a service associated with the software. You may copy and use the media elements in projects and documents. You may not (i) sell, license or distribute copies of the media elements by themselves or as a product if the primary value of the product is the media elements; (ii) grant your customers rights to further license or distribute the media elements; (iii) license or distribute for commercial purposes media elements that include the representation of identifiable individuals, governments, logos, trademarks, or emblems or use these types of images in ways that could imply an endorsement or association with your product, entity or activity; or (iv) create obscene or scandalous works using the media elements. For more information, go to www.microsoft.com/permission.
Thrilled that I had finally found a picture that I could use, I finally set to work on my creation. The paint can picture actually worked perfectly, because each paint can could symbolize a different day ("...day after day..."). I looked through my pages of pictures, and finally narrowed it down to three (below). I chose these specifics out of my collection, because each was taken from places I call "home." In the pictures shown below, the picture on the left was snapped from the backyard at my parents house in Virginia. This was my home during my high school years. The middle photograph was taken in Cocoa Beach, FL during Spring Break 4 years earlier. While the picture was taken during vacation, it is a destination my family visits frequently, as it is actually my hometown. I spent the first 7 years of my life here, admiring each sunset. The last picture was taken off a small island around Charleston. While I've never lived in Charleston, it does symbolize South Carolina, that state I have now called home for the past year.
Screen shot 2012-09-20 at 10.05.13 PM.png
I decided I wanted to show that from the 3 paint cans would be 3 different sunsets. Or, essentially, these were nature's paint cans used to paint the beautiful sky during three different days at dusk, as worded in Ruskiin's quote.
Now that I had all of my pictures and my quote ready, I opened up a new document on pixlr.com. This is very similar to how I write essays or complete other projects - I get my research together, compile all of my data, and once all of the background necessities are complete, set off to begin my first draft.
I kept the default size, 512 x 324. I clicked Layers > Open image as layer, and selected the paint cans found earlier in MS Word.
Screen shot 2012-09-20 at 9.53.00 PM.png
The clip was the size of the entire canvas, so no resizing was necessary. I decided to change the background color to black, and used the Paint Bucket Tool on the left side of the window to do so. Now that I had my background, I inserted my three personal sunset pictures using the same process: Layers > Open image as layer. My pictures were imported at a huge size, and all had to be sized down. This took some troubleshooting, as there was no "resize" option on the toolbar. Finally, after many attempts, I discovered I could resize each picture by clicking Edit > Free transform. This gave me the option of pulling or pushing each picture by its corners or sides, which allowed me to stretch the image bigger or shrink it as needed. All three sunsets needed to be shrunk (like the picture below).
screenshot1.jpg
I then went ahead and inserted each image as a layer, and resized all three so that they were all visible and approximately the size of each paint can top.
Screen shot 2012-09-20 at 10.08.27 PM.png
One by one, I visited each layer and used the eraser tool to take the edges off of each picture. I made each picture oval in shape. I positioned each sunset so that it had the appearance to be inside of each paint can. This was a very tedious project, and took it took time to make sure each picture was appropriately rounded to fit "inside" each paint can.
screenshot5.jpg
After completing the erasing task, I inserted the quote by clicking on the text icon on the left-hand side toolbar. I decided to break up the text into 2 different text boxes to spread out the quote throughout the picture.
I experimented with font types and colors, and decided on Caflisch Script Pro, 24 point, Italics, and yellow. I felt this type chosen and the italics work together to add an "artistic" flow to the new image. Yellow was chosen as the easiest to read based on my background. After adding this final, vital detail, I knew my image was complete.
For my Graphics Project, I chose to create my image using Pixlr (http://pixlr.com/editor/) . I found this site during gp3, and fell in the love with its easy navigation and clear, clean layout.
It actually took me a lot of time to decide on my topic. I knew I wanted to choose the second option of creating a collage of some kind with a quote, but I couldn't decide how to interpret a quote with only pictures. I had narrowed my ideas down to 3 options: teaching (due to my profession), puppies (because I have a ton of pictures of my own), and sunsets (because I have quite a habit which has resulted in hundreds of pictures). I started off with my teaching idea, and found 2 great quotes. One, by Dan Rather, mentions that a teacher believes in you and pushes you to the next plateau. I had this great idea in my head that involved someone looking over the edge of a cliff and somehow showing that they weren't afraid of the plunge. However, I couldn't find any copyright-free pictures that could convey this. Another teaching quote I found was "a teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." Again I had this great idea in my head, with a background of some celestial atmosphere, and dominoes tumbling through the middle of the picture. However, again I couldn't find any pictures that would show this exactly how I was imagining. I then quickly went through the puppy phase - even though I have my own great pictures, I couldn't think of any awesome quotes that explained my feelings. I finally began looking through my sunset pictures and decided it was about time I did something with all of them, other than take up space on my hard drive.
Since I had the pictures already, I began researching quotes. I found a lot that I felt could work, but immediately fell for this quote by John Ruskiin: "At sunset, nature is painting for us... day after day... pictures of infinite beauty." This quote matched my feelings exactly, and I loved the metaphor created with the word "painting." I immediately went to work searching for royalty-free pictures of paint brushes. I was about to give up, when I decided to use my last resort and look at Microsoft's clipart gallery.
I searched "paint," and at first was disappointed to find such a limited response. However, upon inspection, I inserted the first picture. After pasting it into my document, I noticed it was actually a photograph, and was of decent quality. I researched Microsoft End-User terms before using, and confirmed that I was allowed to use this photo as it is for a non-profit project:
d.Media Elements and Templates. You may have access to media images, clip art, animations, sounds, music, video clips, templates and other forms of content (“media elements”) provided with the software or as part of a service associated with the software. You may copy and use the media elements in projects and documents. You may not (i) sell, license or distribute copies of the media elements by themselves or as a product if the primary value of the product is the media elements; (ii) grant your customers rights to further license or distribute the media elements; (iii) license or distribute for commercial purposes media elements that include the representation of identifiable individuals, governments, logos, trademarks, or emblems or use these types of images in ways that could imply an endorsement or association with your product, entity or activity; or (iv) create obscene or scandalous works using the media elements. For more information, go to www.microsoft.com/permission.
Thrilled that I had finally found a picture that I could use, I finally set to work on my creation. The paint can picture actually worked perfectly, because each paint can could symbolize a different day ("...day after day..."). I looked through my pages of pictures, and finally narrowed it down to three (below). I chose these specifics out of my collection, because each was taken from places I call "home." In the pictures shown below, the picture on the left was snapped from the backyard at my parents house in Virginia. This was my home during my high school years. The middle photograph was taken in Cocoa Beach, FL during Spring Break 4 years earlier. While the picture was taken during vacation, it is a destination my family visits frequently, as it is actually my hometown. I spent the first 7 years of my life here, admiring each sunset. The last picture was taken off a small island around Charleston. While I've never lived in Charleston, it does symbolize South Carolina, that state I have now called home for the past year.
I decided I wanted to show that from the 3 paint cans would be 3 different sunsets. Or, essentially, these were nature's paint cans used to paint the beautiful sky during three different days at dusk, as worded in Ruskiin's quote.
Now that I had all of my pictures and my quote ready, I opened up a new document on pixlr.com. This is very similar to how I write essays or complete other projects - I get my research together, compile all of my data, and once all of the background necessities are complete, set off to begin my first draft.
I kept the default size, 512 x 324. I clicked Layers > Open image as layer, and selected the paint cans found earlier in MS Word.
The clip was the size of the entire canvas, so no resizing was necessary. I decided to change the background color to black, and used the Paint Bucket Tool on the left side of the window to do so. Now that I had my background, I inserted my three personal sunset pictures using the same process: Layers > Open image as layer. My pictures were imported at a huge size, and all had to be sized down. This took some troubleshooting, as there was no "resize" option on the toolbar. Finally, after many attempts, I discovered I could resize each picture by clicking Edit > Free transform. This gave me the option of pulling or pushing each picture by its corners or sides, which allowed me to stretch the image bigger or shrink it as needed. All three sunsets needed to be shrunk (like the picture below).
I then went ahead and inserted each image as a layer, and resized all three so that they were all visible and approximately the size of each paint can top.
One by one, I visited each layer and used the eraser tool to take the edges off of each picture. I made each picture oval in shape. I positioned each sunset so that it had the appearance to be inside of each paint can. This was a very tedious project, and took it took time to make sure each picture was appropriately rounded to fit "inside" each paint can.
After completing the erasing task, I inserted the quote by clicking on the text icon on the left-hand side toolbar. I decided to break up the text into 2 different text boxes to spread out the quote throughout the picture.
I experimented with font types and colors, and decided on Caflisch Script Pro, 24 point, Italics, and yellow. I felt this type chosen and the italics work together to add an "artistic" flow to the new image. Yellow was chosen as the easiest to read based on my background. After adding this final, vital detail, I knew my image was complete.